Tag Archives: crossfit

It’s been a while since I’ve written about my breast cancer journey, so I thought that since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it would be an appropriate time to check in.

First and foremost, I’m doing awesome! This past July marked my two-year survivor anniversary. In the past two years, I’ve been through five major surgeries, countless “minor procedures,” six rounds of chemotherapy, and am now on hormone therapy for the next 3 ½ years. If it seems like a lot to read, imagine going through it. But…I’m here, alive and well and thriving.

Although I’ve been through a lot, I attribute my success and ability to cope to three things:

My Faith in God and His awesome power

My husband, Alvin; my family, friends and followers standing by me all the way and pushing me to keep fighting

Exercise

Without these three elements firmly entrenched in my life, I shudder to think what kind of shape (physical, emotional and mental) that I would be in right now.

Faith and family, I’m sure you can relate to how important these are to you when you need them most; but exercise?

Let me explain. This is not just any old type of exercise, but serious, vigorous, out-of-breath, leaves you crawling exercise. I first heard about how important exercise is to cancer recovery from a guest on my radio show. She was diagnosed with Stage IV Lymphoma and survived. While on the show she said that she attributed her success to vigorous exercise. This point stuck in my mind and when I was faced with a similar situation, I put my plan in motion. (more…)

Rhabdomyolysis is an extremely rare and potentially fatal muscle disease that fries the kidneys. This is doubtfully the first time you’ve heard of it, unless you’re a CrossFitter. CrossFit is a Marine-like workout routine that combines aerobic exercise, gymnastics and Olympic weightlifting, and Rhabdomyolysis—affectionately known as Rhabdo—is a common affliction sustained by CrossFitters. The CrossFit/Rhabdo debate was sparked last week when photos of a pregnant woman doing CrossFit went viral. Considering the disease’s disturbing associations with CrossFit, it’s worth asking whether anyone—not just an eight months pregnant woman—should CrossFit.

In 2005, there were 13 official CrossFit gyms in the United States. Now, there are more than 6,000. A CrossFit gym is more akin to a boot camp than a fitness center, and the intense workouts routinely leave exercisers with JELL-O for muscles. This is because—according to ABC News Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser, CrossFitters are “…asking [their] muscles to keep working after they’ve stopped getting any energy to get the job done.”

Let’s take a more detailed look at what Rhabdomyolysis does to the body.

At its onset, Rhabdo introduces itself as a soreness of the muscles. Hours later, when your appendages refuse to obey your brain’s commands to move, dead muscle cells have begun to release myoglobin—a protein harmful to the kidneys—into the bloodstream. Symptoms like vomiting, muscle spasms and confusion follow shortly after. And once your urine turns a lovely shade of coffee-brown, you can confidently diagnose yourself with Rhabdomyolysis. Get yourself to a hospital, because kidney failure and death are next. (more…)

The Paleo Diet has become one of the most popular diets in the U.S. in recent years. According to Experian Marketing Services it was the most searched for diet on the Internet the first week of 2013. As a result it now sits on the top 10 list of most popular diets.

So who is going Paleo these days? According to researchers, roughly 58 percent of the recent surge in Internet searches have come from females. Among those, 33 percent listed an annual household income of $30,000-60,000. It’s apparent that middle class women are the primary demographic growing curious about this popular diet for their health and weight loss goals.

What is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo Diet, also known as the Caveman Diet, permits only foods that were consumed during the Paleolithic era, roughly 10,000 years ago. Since agriculture had not yet been invented, the diet prohibits many foods that are consumed in today’s society on a regular basis, such as grains, sugar and dairy. The general idea, however, is to only consume foods from nature – not foods that have been man made. (more…)

Well folks, it’s becoming official. It seems as if strong is finally the new skinny in Hollywood. CrossFit training has continued its success and becomes more popular every day with more than 7,000 CrossFit niche, or affiliate, gyms popping up around the U.S. and 30 in New York City alone.

The CrossFit workouts usually only last between 20-35 minutes, which may seem short, but the high levels of intensity will make it seem like a lifetime. Try flipping 200 pound tractor tires for 20 minutes straight and see if you feel like doing anything afterward.

It seems with CrossFit there’s been a bit of a role reversal – where everyone else found CrossFit first and the Hollywood set dove in, too. It’s usually us chasing their methods! One of the biggest star faces the sport has is Bob Harper. The Biggest Loser trainer even built his own CrossFit gym on the ranch for his contestants this season.

“I’m drawn to CrossFit because it is so well rounded and constantly different. I have found that CF has made me more fit than I have ever been,” Bob told us. “I believe in this style of working out so much that I incorporated it onto my show and have seen tremendous results. [It’s] definitely the way to go for me.”

Everyone knows that if you want to lose weight, you’re going to have to incorporate a good diet and exercise together. That’s pretty much a given. But did you know if you incorporate two very distinct lifestyles together you could see mouth-dropping results? They’re called the Paleo Diet and Crossfit.

Yes, the two on their own are great ways to work toward your health and fitness goals, but when combined it seems the match was made for each other.

One reason Crossfit athletes are fans of the Paleo diet is because of the way the foods make them feel and how it prepares their bodies for the intense workouts. If you eat a bowl of ice cream or a cheeseburger just hours before your WOD (workout of the day), there’s a good chance you’ll be best friends with a trash bin and won’t be able to finish the workout. People have noticed that when they stick to their Paleo diet, not only will they be able to finish the workout but they’re also able to get through it much easier and push themselves harder.

Andrew Manser, a Crossfit gym owner in Hollywood, says he’s been doing Crossfit and variations of Paleo for the past five years and highly recommends the combination. (more…)

If you’ve taken up any sort of interest in the latest workout trend Crossfit, than here’s something you might be interested in. We’ve got a whole list of items to wear or use during your intense Crossfit workouts. Some of these are made to aid you during or after your workouts while others may just be to show off that you’re crazy enough to be involved in the sport. Either way, we’ve got the scoop on what’s in for Crossfit apparel, gear and equipment.

A lot goes in to a good sex life, and for women it can be more of a mind game with our conscience than anything else: Are my legs shaved? How’s my breath? Am I bloated? What’s he really think of my naked body? It’s common for women to over analyze things and want everything to be perfect to be “in the mood,” but that can be the biggest antagonist of them all.

We’ve got four weeks to get you ready for a romping good Valentine’s Day night. So follow these four key tasks our experts have identified to help you work on body image, toning, flexibility, and a little weight loss. There’s a good chance you’ll be the one wanting to skip dinner and head straight to the sheets…

Body Image

We all have insecurities about our bodies, but realize how important a positive body image is for enhancing our sex lives.

“Even without changing your body, learning to love it (or parts of it) can do wonders for you in the bedroom,” says Brooke Randolph, LMHC, our resident mental health expert. “If you hate your body and want to hide it, it’s hard to really relax and be tuned into your partner and what you’re experiencing. When you feel good about yourself, you’re more likely to not only try to seduce your partner, but you’re more easily seduced by them as well.”

As we end the first week of 2013, it seems appropriate to look ahead and forecast what will be the hot fitness and health trends of the upcoming year. It’s always fun to not only look back to archive a year, but seeing which trends will be big and make a mark this year is, too. We’ve rounded up the seven things we think everyone will be chatting about this year and in to 2014!

1. Fitness and Health Smartphone Apps. Last year was another big one for fitness apps. Just this week Consumer Reports noted that MyFitnessPal was at the top of their list for “DIY Dieting.” There are so many useful and effective programs available that, according to Huffington Post, it’s expected that even health professionals will start advocating for and recommending these apps to help keep their patients on track.

2. Crossfit and Women in the Weight Room. The popularity of Crossfit has yet to wane and as a result more women aren’t getting scared out of the weight room. It’s assumed that more women will take up these classes and practices this year. The benefits of heavy lifting are being revealed as social media has proven a great way to show off the results many women are seeing. Nevermind the internal benefits such as bone and heart health. (more…)

One of the most popular fitness trends of 2012 was the CrossFit phenomenon. Dedicated gyms gave followers a place to perfect their WOD (workout of the day) while finding motivation from like-minded men and women. CrossFit is not going out with the old but will be very much a part of this new year. If you’ve thought about joining the craze, let us be your guide.

What is CrossFit?

In the year 2000, Greg Glassman created a workout program that has become known as CrossFit. This program is a short workout that involves high intensity functional movements for the entire body. The idea is to push one’s self as hard as possible for a short amount of time, sometimes even less than 20 minutes.

CrossFit involves many dynamic exercises such as plyometric jumps, Olympic lifts, sprinting, rowing, jump rope, flipping tires, body weight exercises, weightlifting and even climbing a rope to the top of a ceiling. If you’ve been to a bootcamp, it looks very similar. In terms of weight lifting, we aren’t just talking about your average dumbbell, but other non-traditional weight lifting equipment. Some of these might include sand bags, kettlebells, water-filled containers, andsuspension systems.

The goal during this very high intensity workout is to perform a certain number or repetitions in a certain amount of time. Some athletes who take CrossFit classes are even scored and ranked in order to encourage competition and to track progress. For those who are more advanced, some will even compete against one another in person and then post their results on the CrossFit website. (more…)

As a visibly ripped and fit food blogger, you’d never guess that Elizabeth Nyland of the blog Guilty Kitchen ever struggled with her weight. But in fact, before she ever hit her teenage years she was already well into a years-long battle with weight gain.

At age 18, Elizabeth stood at just 5 foot 4 inches tall and weighed 185 pounds. Now, at age 29 (and the same height) she’s down to a happy 125. But getting to that point wasn’t easy.

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